| Summary: | There is a commercial swim program based on dwarf minke whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, in the northern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. During the winter months, dive tourists on the live-aboard dive vessels operating along the outer shelf Ribbon Reefs north of Port Douglas, experience close and often prolonged encounters with these inquisitive little whales while snorkelling and SCUBA diving. Only recently recognised as different to their northern and southern hemisphere minke relatives, these whales are currently regarded as an undescribed sub-species of the northern hemisphere minke. They were first documented in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in the 1980s and, despite several years of intensive study, we still know very little about their biology and ecology. This lack of knowledge about some of the most basic information needed for ecologically sustainable management of interactions has been the driving force behind our research and this study addresses some of these information gaps. These encounters are two-way interactions with both the whales and the humans being influenced by the behaviour of each other. It is therefore vital that we understand as much as possible about all aspects of these interactions. We have thus used research methodologies derived from both the natural sciences and the social sciences. Previous studies of other marine wildlife have shown the importance of understanding the experiences of people to effectively design and test appropriate management guidelines (Birtles, Cuthill, Valentine and Davis 1996; Davis, Banks, Birtles, Valentine and Cuthill 1997). Observations of whale-swimmer interactions indicated that initiation of encounters both at reefs and in open water were largely controlled by the whales. Management of snorkeller/diver behaviour is necessary, however, to minimize potential harassment of the whales and to ensure that the interactions are as much as possible under the control of the whales, this being one of the key requirements of the ANZECC ...
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